Apple has responded to Greenpeace’s just-published “How Clean is Your Cloud” report, which claimed that Apple heavily relies on dirty coal-based power. Apple says that renewable energy will provide 50 percent more of its Maiden, N.C. data center’s power needs than the environment group projected.
AppleInsiderGreenpeace on Tuesday gave Apple low marks in its new report and criticized it for its reliance on coal-based power. In the report, the organization dismissed Apple’s renewable energy efforts for its Maiden, N.C., server farm as providing just 10 percent of “their total generation.”
Apple quickly responded in a statement: “Our data center in North Carolina will draw about 20 megawatts at full capacity, and we are on track to supply more than 60 percent of that power on-site from renewable sources including a solar farm and fuel cell installation which will each be the largest of their kind in the country,” said spokeswoman Kristin Huguet. “We believe this industry-leading project will make Maiden the greenest data center ever built, and it will be joined next year by our new facility in Oregon running on 100 percent renewable energy.”
Earlier this year, Apple announced plans to build a “green” data center in Prineville, Oregon.
Greenpeace said in its original report that it had provided its power estimates to Amazon and Apple and both had responded that the figures were incorrect. The group said that it decided to publish the report anyway and invite the companies to “be transparent and provide more accurate data.”
